It is not always easy to immediately identify individual animals, in particular to establish with a high degree of confidence that a said animal is a particular individual animal or belongs to a particular person.
With the introduction of more relaxed controls at border crossings and customs offices, in relation to pets, for example. The introduction of so called “pet passports”, it is important for efficiency reasons to be able to quickly identify that an animal is a particular claimed individual. Furthermore it is sometimes vital that this can be achieved with a high degree of confidence so as to minimise the risk that unauthorised animals are let into a country so as to minimise the risk of diseases, such as rabies. In certain instances, such a system may also prevent or deter against the smuggling of rare breeds or indeed stolen and highly valued stock.
Despite the use of so-called “pet passports” there remain problems faced by customs officials and veterinary staff in identifying individual animals in breeds where individuals are very difficult to identify.